Tucker's Giant Rats

So the other day I read someone, somewhere, categorizing the giant rat as a “throw-away” monster. In fact, they went so far as to imply that an adventure that uses giant rats is boring and/or uncreative. I personally love giant rats, but like many monsters, its really the way that you use them that is important.

This sort of thing was covered before in the famous Dragon mag essay “Tucker’s Kobolds”. Kobolds are weak on paper. A few kobolds in an empty room with a couple of slings is not a memorable or challenging encounter. However, put a few dozen crafty, cunning kobolds together with some traps and you can cause some real havoc. Creative use of monsters is the thing.

I like the game world to be reactive. I like player actions to have consequences. Try this the next time you have a group of players exploring a dungeon, leaving a trail of gore and viscera in their wake, with no attempt to conceal or hide the carnage. After a few hours, I figure the stench is going to start to attract rats. Lots of them. If the party spends another few hours venturing further into the dungeon, or better yet, attempts to spend the night in some barricaded room, I make it a point to infest the bloodiest encounter sites with hungry rats. Tons of them. Dozens and dozens of them. Dozens and dozens of diseased rats.

Later, if the party has to flee the dungeon, or if they are haughtily and confidently heading out for the night, assuming they won’t encounter anything on the way back, they come upon the rats. Only now, the rats aren’t weak 1 HD throw-away monsters. Now the rats are in a feeding frenzy, swarming, blocking the passage. Rife with plague. Horrifying and feral. Exploding from a dead Orc’s chest cavity. Pouring from the mouth of a dead Hobgoblin. They double back, but another dozen is rambling down the hallway. They try the side door, and more spill out. Hungry. Mangy. Tucker’s Giant Rats.

On a sad note, Aaron Allston has passed away. I will always be amazed at the sheer output this guy had. Some people are seemingly born to write. Allston never seemed to run out of creative ideas. RIP.

Curse of the Crab Spider!

The Crab Spider is a cruel monster. Appearing in Moldvay's Basic D&D rule set, this spider is both stealthy (surprises on a 4 in 6) and poisonous. It has a twist though: the poison does not kill instantly; rather, it is lethal after 1d4 turns. I assume that this delay is to somewhat "soften" the creature and allow for at least the possibility of magic items or spells offsetting the poison. I imagine that many DMs might say something like, "You can feel the poison coursing through your bloodstream, and you know that if you aren't treated soon that you will die." However, as I was pondering this creature, I found myself inspired to look at it another way. The delayed effect of the poison doesn't have to play out in such a straightforward manner. The DM could in fact just continue the game without saying anything, then about 20 or 30 minutes down the line, after the encounter is pretty much forgotten, get a grave look on his face and say something like, "Uh, Doug. You are noticing that your leg is swollen AS ALL HELL where that spider bit you. You are also feeling a little confused...dizzy...you stumble...save vs poison." It is much more terrifying for the PC to be unprepared, thinking that everything is ok, and then have the bite come back to haunt them. That got me thinking...

Delayed effects. That is what I want to talk about today. Delayed effects are a great way to add twists to your game and to horrify your players. There are all kinds of ways you can use them. Here are a few ideas I came up with.

Poison: Well, the aforementioned Crab Spider gives us a good example of delayed poison use. Lets think of another. What if the party are guests at some banquet? Everything goes swimmingly and it is a lovely evening. A few hours later, back at the inn, they all start projectile vomiting, developing visibly dark, swollen lymph nodes. They were poisoned at dinner and didn't realize it. What do they do now?

Diseases: In my experience, both as a player and DM, diseases make for great, memorable roleplay opportunities. Maybe they get into a fight in a tropical clime, and their open wounds allow for some kind of parasitical infection that doesn't manifest itself for a week. Maybe they pick up something passing through a town, developing a fever weeks later. Confuse them as to where they contracted the disease. Diseases also need not be lethal. They could just make for fun scenarios. Maybe they catch a severe cold and every time they interact with NPCs, you cue them to sneeze. With no handkerchief.

Curses: You could have some old woman in a marketplace curse the party, a la Drag Me to Hell. Weeks later, strange things start happening. Only through the help of a sage do they even recall the curse. Savor the look on their face when it dawns on them.

Bodily Transformation: A scratch from an undead creature could set off a metamorphosis, like something from The Fly. Again, let weeks of game time go by, then maybe an affected PC starts losing his or her hair, or has a fingernail come off really easily. Trying to figure out the cause of the symptoms becomes an adventure in itself.

Hauntings: I like this idea a lot. The PCs kill someone or something, perhaps accidentally. Days later they maybe dream about it, then start seeing it while they are awake. Others cannot see it. This would be fun with like spooky, freaky little Goblin children or something.


These are just a few random ideas, but I hope they get your wheels turning. Delayed effects such as these can really add another dimension of horror to a game, serve as adventure seeds, and/or simply encourage some fun, often hilarious roleplay. I am curious to hear if any of you out there have used similar delayed effects in your games. If so, leave a post!

Let's Clear Up A Few 4e Myths

Howdy. I had a few disparate blog ideas running thru the head, and I realized they all could be used to dispel a few 4e myths, so I have combined them together. First off, don't get me wrong, 4e isn't perfect and I don't claim it to be. Readers of this blog know that I constantly tinker with 4e to make it something I like more. That's sort of the essence of D&D after all: making the game your own. But I am undoubtedly a huge fan of 4e. Anyway, here are some common 4e myths and my response:





"It is difficult to convert old modules to 4e"

I don't now who started this one, but it simply isn't true. I've mentioned before that I drop Skill Challenges from my games. One of the reasons for this is that, on its own, the 4e skill system is very smooth, intuitive, and covers pretty much anything that comes up (and if something else comes up, you can roll with Ability Checks). Anyway, in my experience the 4e skill system works like a charm in updated adventures. I updated Ravenloft (I6) for 4e. There are all kinds of roleplay moments, exploration, etc where skills came up. I just rolled with it if the players wanted to use one, or called for a check if it was really needed. So there is really no conversion necessary for an old modules' out-of-combat material. It can be handled on the fly quite easily.

The monster conversion is where the real challenges would appear to begin. Now, I am not going to say converting monsters from 1e to 4e is as easy as 1e to B/X or 2e, because it isn't. But 4e does have a strength that those games lack: 4e monsters have specific formulas to work from. This can help DMs determine difficulty fairly accurately, but more importantly, it is very easy to make 4e monsters.

Confronted with the need to convert a monster in an old module, the first step I would encourage is to see if there is a 4e version within your party's level range. If so, check the source and see if it is post MM3. If it isn't, try these tips to upgrade old crappy monsters on the fly. If the monster isn't in your party's range, it is fairly straightforward to adjust. The design remains the same, you just plug in different numbers. Make sure you are using the DMG errata though.

If you can't find the monster in a 4e source, or if you don't like what 4e did the monster, build your own. This doesn't have to be laborious. Use this guide to make quick 4e monsters. Try to distill the essence of the original monster and keep it simple.



The last step is to make sure the adventure doesn't run like a sloggy mess. There are several ways to do this. You could drop the wandering monsters from an adventure and just run the prepared encounters, or you could drop a lot of planned encounters and instead just use the wandering monster tables. Or you could drop a little of both. This isn't just in response to 4e combat length (more on that below); the fact is, some old modules feel like a grind to begin with. You should also use Morale and Reaction Tables. If you are using an old module that has Morale scores, just port them over. Otherwise you can check my 4e Morale rules. Ok, so that leads us to the next myth.

"Combat was fast in old editions, never approaching 4e length"

This is simply not true. It is true that classic edition combat COULD be quicker, but it wasn't always. I know this because I DM and play old editions. At even moderate levels, old edition spellcasters could have a ton of choices, and adjudicating their effects was often not a cut and dried proposition. A typical PC's percentage chance to hit was often lower, so there are more misses. There were also huge throngs of monsters in old adventures, like all the time. I am reminded of one of my faves, Descent Into the Depth of the Earth, which was a combo module of D1-D2. There are like 20 Drow here, 40 Kuo-Toa there, 30 Troglodytes here. Heck, even in the Village of Hommlet, you will have 16 or more enemy combatants!

Now I KNOW combat can drag in 4e. I have tried to provide some tips and ideas to help with that. Simplifying monsters, using groups of the same monsters, using Morale, lowering hit points-all of this helps. But it is simply disingenuous to act like old combat couldn't take a while, especially when casters had some actual spells to cast. This has also been true of my experience with 5e so far. We had a two hour combat last week and we just hit level 2. Combat often takes an hour or more at level 1. I am not saying it isn't fun, or that this is too long, I am just saying that combat length can drag in multiple editions; it isn't only a 4e phenomenon.

"It is harder to houserule 4e than other editions"

I am tempted just to say "read my blog" as a response to this one, because there are dozens of houserule examples on here, but just to expound on it a bit, 4e is no different from any other edition of D&D. You can houserule it and make it your own with ease. The difference between 4e and classic editions is that the mechanics in 4e are "on display". The math is predictable and easy to grasp. This is already sort of covered above with monsters. This makes houseruling and homebrewing very easy. Since you have clear expectations for damage, defenses, DCs, etc at all levels, it becomes very easy to slide the scale towards "easy" or "hard". See Fourthcore. I have tweaked monster design, traps, disease, combat, and on and on, and I have only scratched the surface of the possibilities. 4e does not deviate from D&D's proud history of homebrewing and houseruling, it embraces it as much as any other edition.

That's all I have for you today. As always, I welcome comments! Take it easy!

Memorable Mechanics Part 2: Disease

So, my series on using unusual mechanics in 4e games continues today with the subject of disease. On paper, I kind of like the look of how 4e handles disease. Gone are the absurd "realistic" diseases of the 1e days (Kidney infection? Fun!). Still, the 4e system has the disease affect the PC in stages. This is where the problems come in. I have yet to see a PC hit the late stages of a disease. Between saving throw bonuses and wonky Endurance DCs, it is rare that a PC contract a disease at all. This defeats the purpose. Furthermore, keeping track of stages is kind of annoying to begin with. So, here are my ideas on how to include diseases in your 4e game.



You get no save. You have the disease, period.
Pretty simple, the diseased bat bites you, you have the disease. Might sound harsh but, hey, thats disease.

The disease has no 'stages'. It is what it is.
It is my advice to go ahead and get straight to the juicy stuff. Ravage the PCs body with disease while you have the chance. Severe is good. Severe is memorable. Nobody remembers the time they got stage one of some wussy disease that gave them a -1 Fort for 6 hours. They DO remember that time their body parts started falling off and they had to carry them in their backpack. For published diseases, go straight to the final stage.

After an extended rest, make a hard Endurance check.
If the PC passes the check, they are cured. If they fail, they aren't. You can have the PC die after failing an Endurance check if you like, or it can just be chronic until they beat the DC. Nice and simple. No stages to track. Allies can treat a disease as normal.

That's pretty much it. I promise you you will see more ritual use in your games after a disease or two like this! Making diseases memorable starts with simply making diseases a threat, and the way the rules currently play, disease is no threat at all to a group of PCs. Let's change that.

Do you have any memorable disease stories? Please leave a post!